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A Long Way Off

I love movies, but am not thrilled by the inundation of questionable, well-funded Hollywood productions that drown us regularly. My husband and I no longer go to the movies, and instead wait for friends to recommend movies to us, because frankly, if it’s acclaimed by Hollywood critiques, we know we will hate it. Those movies are often filled with political propaganda, extraordinary violence or nudity, or other material I find offensive.

The nail in the coffin for me when it came to Hollywood movies was seeing stories glorifying pedophiles and criminals sweep the awards and get standing ovations from Hollywood celebrities. I don’t understand the motivation of these people who praise “art” over morals, and don’t want to.

The emergence of Christian movies that are surfacing for those of us who have had enough of mind-numbingly offensive Hollywood productions is an oasis in the desert. We want to be entertained, but we want wholesome entertainment. We also want quality entertainment, and this is where Christian movies were often lacking, but luckily, with support and growing popularity, this is improving as well.

a long way off movie still image

A Long Way Off is a faith-based film that retells the story of The Prodigal Son. It’s the story of Jake (played by Jason Burkey), a young man who wants more out of life than working with his father in the family business. He wants novelty, freedom from responsibility, quick success in the stock market. One day he asks his father for his inheritance to take and go off on his own…he asks his still-living father for his half of what is still the father’s, and happily disappears off into the world with it without a glance back.

The Prodigal Son is one of my favorite parables from the Bible because it reminds me to hope for and celebrate the return of our fellow men who may have gone (sometimes for many years) to the dark side so to speak. Whenever they return, it’s a celebration, and not a competition over who put in more time being good to deserve G-d’s love more, something I think that is hard to remember. The father is played with great heart by John Diehl. The compassion, longing, and love he feels for his son is palpable and beautiful, and I found his portrayal to be one of my favorite aspects of this film.

The brothers have believable animosity between them, and the overall story was well-written. I can recommend it for anyone who is looking for a modern day retelling of a favorite parable, and who have young children in the house. Where the movie falters a bit is in some of the casting and a few weaker plot points. I couldn’t buy perpetually scowling Johanna Jowett as the temptress Jake couldn’t resist amidst the sweeter characters in the film. It was pretty clear early on she wasn’t on the up and up, but there wasn’t even an attempt to deceive Jake into thinking otherwise, so he comes across as rather dimwitted for never questioning why another man is always in her apartment at all times of the day, and for turning to her for help when he is in danger and she basically already told him she didn’t care. We know he’s a smart guy, and the movie wasn’t that long, so a few scenes tossed in to develop their relationship more and help us see why was he so blinded would have been great.

These small things that didn’t diminish the value of this film for us, and I’m happy that more effort is being made to produce quality films in a relevant and under-represented genre, and make it more appealing to our younger generations who are exposed to high quality, well-produced drivel on a regular basis. They are surprisingly sophisticated and not so easily engaged anymore, so production value is going to have a huge effect on whether they return to watch more Christian films or not. Hopefully Uptone pictures has a great deal more movies on the horizon for us.

I was sent a copy of A Long Way Off to share my honest opinions with my readers. The DVD will be released November 11th, just in time for spending some family time together watching movies this holiday season.




  • It’s sad that there aren’t as many wholesome movies being made anymore.

  • I always want to like faith-based movies, but the acting always kills it for me. I’m not sure why that seems to be a common thread. It makes me sad.

  • I like faith based movies, I think you can always learn something from them, and they normally have a great story line. Sounds like a good movie!

  • I love all kinds of movies but really like a movie that says something

  • We try and find good faith based movies to watch – well produced ones are hard to find though. That being said more and more are coming out with larger budgets and I hope that they find a place in our society.

  • I haven’t heard of A Long Way Off. It sounds like a movie I’d really enjoy.

  • It sounds like a great film to watch together as a family. I know there aren’t always a ton of options for us to watch together that we don’t have to worry about.

  • I haven’t heard of this but it looks like something I could learn from by watching.

  • Excellent review. You’re right there aren’t enough wholesome movies like this one on the market anymore. I totally enjoyed doing a review of this movie. It was a pleasure to watch and definitely a movie that I could relate to on many levels.

  • I’m going to look for this… I too love seeing more faith-based movies. My son will actually be auditioning for a movie to be filmed in our area next summer that is through a christian production company.

  • Penelope

    That is really cool!

  • this is a great post and I completely agree with what you said! This movie looks great, I love films like this.

  • There definitely is some interesting themes in movies these days. It is good to have different movies to appeal to all.

  • I am not a person of faith myself but am always open for an interesting movie that promotes positive morals and values, especially if I don’t have to shield my children’s eyes during certain scenes.